Secrets & Lies
by amylou135
Summary: Emma returns home and for a while everything is fine, Until the girls discover they might not have been as careful with their secret as they think...
1. Chapter 1

**Secrets & Lies – Chapter One**

This was the best part of being a mermaid Bella thought to herself. No matter what Rikki said about being able to swim ridiculously fast, swimming with the fish and the dolphins was definitely better. Bella looked around and realised she was almost at the moon pool, time flies when you're having fun! She swam slowly through the underwater entrance to the moon pool which had become the only place where her and her two best friends Rikki and Cleo could really be themselves. As Bella lifted her head out of the water, she realised she wasn't alone, there was another mermaid here, but it definitely wasn't a mermaid she recognised.

"Erm... Hi" said the blonde haired mermaid that was clearly just as confused as she was.

"Hey" Bella laughed. "Sorry, it's just when I saw that there was another mermaid in here I definitely wasn't expecting to see a mermaid I didn't know!"

"Oh, you know some other mermaids?"

"Yeah! I mean I guess they won't mind me telling you seeing as your one two, their names are-"

"Rikki Chadwick and Cleo Sertori" The girl answered, much to Bella's surprise.

"How did you know that?" Bella asked

"We all became mermaids together. I'm Emma, I've been travelling the world with my family we got back this morning and I couldn't wait to get back to the moon pool."

"Bella. Sorry, it's just that Cleo and Rikki never mentioned knowing another mermaid. And I know what you mean, this place is so magical, well at least it used to be, until Sophie and Ryan got to it." Bella sighed as she remembered the day that they had ruined the magic of this place, although Zane had been a part of it, he had apologised and since then had helped the girls in a lot of sticky situations at the cafe, and they had forgiven him, and eventually Zane and Rikki got back together.

"Sophie and Ryan? Jeez what happened while I was gone?" Emma asked, she didn't like the worry and sadness in Bella's eyes as she looked around the moon pool.

"It's a very long story, that I'm sure Rikki and Cleo would like to help you fill you in on."

"Come on, I'll race you back" Emma laughed and ducked her head under the water. Bella laughed and rolled her eyes, Emma was exactly like Rikki.

The girls arrived at a secluded area of the beach (Emma won), dried themselves off and began their walk to Rikki's cafe. They walked through the entrance and Bella scanned the room for a sign of Rikki, Cleo or even Zane but none of them were around. Hesitantly Bella walked to the counter to ask Sophie if she had seen any of them.

"No I haven't. And before you ask I don't know where they are." Sophie answered rudely, only adding to Bella's dislike for her, despite the fact that Bella was dating Sophie's brother Will, Sophie continued to hate Bella for no reason in particular.

"Do you want a juice?" Emma asked. "My shout."

"Sure, Banana smoothie please." Bella smiled and took a seat at an empty booth.

Soon enough Emma joined Bella at the booth, and Bella began to fill Emma in on what happened with Sophie and Ryan.

"Wow... I wonder why, for me, the full moon was normal. Well as normal as it can be, I mean I never got attacked by water."

"Maybe it's because you weren't here, near the moon pool."

"Do you really think that the water tentacle was that intelligent?" Emma asked.

"Yeah, I guess so. I mean why else wouldn't water attack you? You weren't close enough to Mako to be able to help to do anything about the comet, so maybe it just left you alone."

"Makes sense, in a twisted sort of way. I wonder where Cleo and Rikki have got to?" Emma wondered.

"Typical that the day one of their best friends comes home, its also the one day they decide not to come to the cafe!" Bella laughed. "Alright, thats it. We'll go stop by Cleo's and see if she's home"

The two girls left the cafe chatting happily and made their way to Cleo's. Sophie walked over to the table to clear their empty glasses, wondering how paranoid Bella had to be to claim that water had been attacking her...


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N Hey to anyone who has actually read my story, this is my first fanfiction so please be nice, that being said please also tell me where I can improve ****. This chapter is a lot longer than the first, which hopefully most of them will be from now on. Please please please review!**

Emma and Bella arrived at Cleo's, they could hear Cleo and Kim arguing through the door.

"Some things never change" Laughed Emma

Bella knocked on the door and Cleo's dad Don answered.

"Oh, hello Bel... Emma! Is that you! I didn't realise that you had arrived back home, Cleo never mentioned anything..."

"She didn't tell you because she didn't know Mr Setori, I thought I'd surprise them when I came home" Emma smiled, as weird as it sounds, she had missed her friends parents almost as much as she had missed her best friends.

"Well come in girls, hopefully seeing you Emma will stop the arguing."

Emma and Bella stepped through the door and right into the middle of another one of Cleo and Kim's many arguments, apparently Kim had borrowed some of Cleo's clothes without asking... Again.

"Just stay away from my stuff Kim! Or at least ask before you take stuff, then I might consider letting you borrow them!" Screamed Cleo, as she turned around ready to stomp up the stairs and into her bedroom, slamming the door for good measure. "Oh my God! Emma!" She leaped into her best friends arms for the first time in a year. "What are you doing here? Why didn't you call? Why didn't you tell me you were coming? I see you met Bella, she's also a-"

"Hey why don't we walk over to Rikki's" Bella interrupted quickly.

"Good idea" Laughed Emma.

The girls left Cleo's house laughing, their conversation didn't resume until they had reached the end of the Cleo's street.

"I'm so sorry! I don't even know what came over me! How could I be so close to blurting out our secret like that?"

"You were excited Cleo, your best friend just got back from travelling the world, and luckily, as always I was there to clean up your mess" Bella joked, laughing at how sorry that Cleo was.

"Oh yeah right Bella" Cleo laughed. "Wait how did you two meet?"

Emma and Bella laughed, and between them they told Cleo about their encounter at the moon pool, how they went to Rikki's and Bella had told Emma about what had happened with the comet. Soon enough Bella, Emma and Cleo reached the trailer park where Rikki lived with her father. They navigated their way through the trailers until they arrived at Rikki's. Emma hid behind Bella and Cleo as they knocked on her door ready to surprise Rikki.

"Oh hey guys, weren't we supposed to meet at Bella's gig later tonight? Am I missing something here?" Rikki asked, noticing the huge smiles on Bella and Cleo's faces.

"Hey Rikki!"

"Emma!" Rikki laughed, hugging her best friend. Emma and Rikki had had their fair share of arguments over the years, but no matter what they were friends and they loved each other. Rikki had never let on just how much she missed Emma. "I can't believe that you're here! And that you're back!"

"As much as I am loving this reunion guys, how about we go somewhere where we can really talk?" Emma asked.

"Mako" Bella smiled.

The girls, slowly at first, began making their way to the water's edge, soon they started to laugh and picked up the pace, eventually breaking out into a run, and diving one by one into the water. Ten seconds later the girls were transformed and began to make their way to Mako Island. Seeing her three best friends ahead of her, Cleo smiled, truth be told, she had been worried that if or when Emma had returned, that there may have been some tension between the two, luckily that did not seem to be the case. Judging by how Emma was holding Bella's tail, and Bella holding Rikki's, it didn't look like there was going to be any problem with the threesome expanding into a foursome. For some reason Cleo thought back to the brief time that Charlotte had been a mermaid, and how that back then having four mermaids seemed to be a disaster, something that didn't work and never would. It occurred to Cleo that maybe it wasn't the idea of a fourth mermaid, maybe it was just that that fourth mermaid had been Charlotte, Bella had a personality completely opposite to Charlotte's – one that everybody didn't actively hate. Cleo snapped out of her trance when she saw Rikki waving at her to get her attention, Cleo grabbed the end of Emma's tail and the four of them sped off in the direction of Mako Island. The girls quickly reached their destination and one by one they entered the moon pool through the underwater entrance.

"I will never get over how relaxing that is" Rikki smiled. "It's so good to have you home Emma"

"Is this the same Rikki Chadwick I left behind? Because she would never have been that soppy" Emma teased.

Rikki stuck her tongue out in Emma's direction and the other girls laughed. "So Emma, tell us about travelling. Meet any cute boys?"

"Rikki, the only cute boy who I ever thought about was Ash, I missed him – and you – like crazy. And I guess there was one big thing that I should probably tell you guys about. I erm, I had to tell my parents about, you know, the mermaid thing."

"What?" Rikki screamed. "How could you Emma, I thought we swore to keep this thing a secret?"

"Woah Rikki, calm down, I'm sure she has a good reason for telling her parents" Bella interrupted.

"Thanks Bella, I like you already" Emma smiled. "Look Rikki it wasn't easy for me, I'd always had the two of you to go to with any mermaid problems, but all of a sudden I had no-one." Emma took a deep breath and recalled the story of how her parents had found out.

_*Flashback*_

Emma had been travelling with her parents for a little over two months now, so far they had visited Spain, Italy, Greece and were currently in France, Paris to be exact. Earlier that day she had visited Disneyland Paris with her parents and her brother had wanted to ride a water ride, her parents don't enjoy rides so it had fallen on Emma to go with him, which of course, she couldn't. They had ended up getting into a huge fight, and had barely spoken to him all day. Now she was just sat in her room in their latest hotel, crying into her pillow and wishing that things were different. It wasn't that she didn't enjoy being a mermaid, it was in fact the opposite, she loved it, but sometimes, it really made things difficult for her and her relationship with her family. She hated keep the secret from them but understood why it was necessary.

"Emma?" Her brother knocked on her bedroom door. "Can I come in?"

"Sure Elliot, what is it?" Emma asked as she sat up on her bed making room for Elliot.

"I wanted to apologise for today, I shouldn't have yelled at you so much, it was just a stupid ride."

"That's OK Elliot, I'm sorry too, I just, I didn't feel like getting wet today ok?"

"Ok Em" Elliot stood up and exited the room, Emma could tell that he was still upset by what had happened, and she felt guilty, because of her secret, her brother wasn't able to enjoy himself as much as he should. Her bedroom door shut as Emma made her decision. She was going to tell her family about her being a mermaid. She took a deep breath and walked down the hall into the small living area in their hotel room.

"Mum, Dad, Elliot, there's something that I need to tell you guys, something that I probably should have told you a long time ago."

"Emma, are you ok?"

"Mum, I'm fine, what I'm going to tell you, will be hard for you to understand, but please don't interrupt me and let me finish."

"Well I think we can manage that sweetheart" Her dad replied, sounding concerned about what could possibly be troubling his daughter.

"Ok, here goes..." Emma sighed, took a deep breath and began to tell the story of the event that had changed her life forever. "Do you remember two years ago when me, Cleo and Rikki were stopped by the water police? Well, that wasn't the only thing that happened that day. When we first got there and realised that we had no phone signal, we tried to get to higher ground hoping that we would get at least some signal to send for help, but as we were walking Cleo slipped and fell down a hole, she had no way to climb back up so I went down after her and Rikki followed. We realised that we were inside the volcano and there was a pool of water, I noticed that there were tidal rings so I swam through a tunnel and got out to sea, I swam back to get Cleo and Rikki, but after we all got in the water something happened. The water began to bubble and tiny little bubbles began to rise up, we looked up and noticed the full moon over the moon pool, we thought nothing of it and then we were rescued by the water police. But the morning after when I went for a swim I –" Emma paused, not knowing quite how to continue, she thought for a minute and decided that the easiest way to make them understand – and believe – was to just show them. "Ok please, I am begging you don't freak out on me." Emma walked over to the sink in the small kitchen and turned on the tap, taking a deep breath she ran her hand under the water and made her way back to the living room.

"Emma love, I don't understand what are you trying to tell us-" Mrs Gilbert stopped, she started at her daughter speechless about what had just happened. Her daughter had turned into water for a second, and then, right in front of her, had grown a tail, exactly like a mermaid.

"Emma... Why...How... Why didn't you tell us? We could've sorted this all out, we could have put an end to this... mermaid business-"

"No Dad! That's exactly what I don't want, being a mermaid may have meant that I had to give up swimming competitively, but this isn't a curse, this is something me, Rikki and Cleo share and it's... it's the best thing that has ever happened to any of us." Emma smiled, looking up at the shocked faces of her family.

Emma's dad took a deep breath and said: "Look Emma, as hard as this is for us to understand, if it's what you want then we will help you and make life easier for you in any way that we can."

Emma breathed a heavy sigh of relief, she had been worried about how her parents would react. "Well how about passing me some towels so I can dry off" she laughed, as Elliot went to grab her some from the bathroom.

"Wow, my sister is a real mermaid"

"Elliot you can't tell anybody about this. Ever. Especially not Kim."

"Ok, Ok, I get it, I won't tell." Elliot's eyes widened as Emma dried off and grew her legs again. "Urgh, all this talk about mermaids and secrets made me forget about my ice cream, and now its melted!"

Emma laughed, "I can fix that she said" She held out her hand and the ice cream froze again.

"Woah! You just froze... How did you do that?"

Emma smiled to herself and explained about her power to freeze things, as well as to create snow and storms, she also told them about Rikki's power to boil things and create fire and lightening, as well as Cleo's power to shape water and create wind. As the night went on Emma told her family about some of their adventures as mermaids, as well as their encounters with Dr Denman and Charlotte. She was surprised at how much relief she felt from telling her family the truth, and felt confident that she had made the right decision in revealing to them that she was a mermaid.

_*Present day*_

"Wow, you're parents seemed to take it well" Cleo smiled.

"Yeah" Emma replied, "they certainly made things easier for me from that day on, plus I was kinda relieved that if it rained and I couldn't go out, there wasn't any need to get the Infectious Disease department involved." Emma, Rikki and Cleo laughed at the memory, and, after seeing the confused look on Bella's face, explained to her what had happened that day.

"Wow" Bella laughed, "You guys certainly didn't do things by halves did you?"

"No, we certainly did not, as much as I am loving this guys, I have to go. Zane is expecting me at the Cafe, I can't leave him and Sophie to set up everything for tonight."

"I told Laurie I would put in a couple of hours at work today, he's having trouble with one of the new rescue dolphins, he can't get her to eat, and for some reason she seems to have taken a liking to me"

The girls said their goodbyes and Rikki and Cleo left the moon pool, racing of course, although there was no doubt in anyone's mind who would win that one.

"Sounds like you had a lot of fun travelling the world?"

"Yeah, it was really awesome, it was hard though, being away from the girls and this place. I'm glad to be home"

"I'll bet. Listen, I'm playing a gig and the cafe tonight, the girls will both be there do you wanna come? You can meet my boyfriend Will, he knows about us too."

"Sure that sounds like fun." Emma smiled, Bella was so easy to get along with, unlike the last time that there had been four mermaids. "Come on I'll race you back, you can come back to my place and help me pick out what to wear for tonight."

"Deal."


End file.
